As the workday ended in West Rockhill Township, Bucks County, on a recent day, pickup presented of rush-hour traffic and into the Green Top Mobile Park.
Narrow roads caused the driveway of the Robertson home, a faded rancher that sat strangely peaceful at the end of Roseann Lane.
Jerry Beers, a longtime Green Top homeowner, said he’d frequently see the Robertson kids playing outdoors on a rope swing. Sometimes, Beers said, he’d use them an icy popsicle or watermelon when it was hot exterior.
But as the Robertsons settled into Green Top in the early days of the pandemic, Beers started to observe that the kids — 7 in all —
looked underweight, and he never ever saw them waiting on the bus that took other community kids to school each early morning. One especially cold night, Beers said, he saw among the young Robertson kids outside using just a diaper.
Last month, the kids’s moms and dads, Shane and Crystal Robinson, were jailed for kid endangerment and associated criminal activities after authorities discovered the kids residing in squalor — ignorant, malnourished and sharing the unclean, collapsing family home with a bunch of more the 2 lots animals.
One of the investigators in the event later on revealed Beers an image of the horrendous conditions inside the family’s home. Feces were scattered cross the flooring, waste from a few of the 26 animals — consisting of family pet rats, dogs, cats, bunnies and a four-foot lizard. Holes cluttered the walls, and the floorings — so harmed that Crystal Robertson when failed — were dotted with trash. The fridge, authorities said, was padlocked shut.
“It tore me apart,” Beers said.
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The kids, who varied in age from 4 to 16, were experiencing myriad health concerns, authorities said — one kid had a “dire” problem of maggots in her hair, another had ringworm.
Two of the kids informed authorities the family had no money, and authorities state the kids strolled the community and took from an abandoned property close by to feed and take care of the family animals. The kids themselves hardly had any food, authorities said.. Crystal Robertson explained her kids to private investigators as “garbage disposals with legs.”
The Robinson kids didn’t go to school, authorities said, and a few of then didn’t even understand their own birthdays.
The Robertsons deal with 7 felony counts of threatening the well-being of kids — one charge for each kid. They were held quickly in the Bucks County prison on $10,000 bail prior to each being launched for $1,000.
Efforts to reach the Robertsons were not successful. No legal representatives for them were noted in court files.
The kids were put in foster care after being clinically examined at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. And the gaggle of animals gotten rid of from the home are being examined and looked after by the Bucks County SPCA.
Social media used a short glance into the Robertsons’ life on Roseann Lane.
Crystal Robertson developed a TikTok page dedicated to the family’s lizard, a red Tegu called Boudin. That account, which had more than 1,000 fans, has actually given that been made personal.
The case drew nationwide attention as concerns occurred over how such overlook went undetected in the peaceful Bucks County neighborhood.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, have actually started to build their case versus the Robertsons prior to they appear in court in August for an initial hearing. Deputy District Attorney Brittney Kern, who is prosecuting the case, said the county was mainly concentrated on the kids’s healing in the meantime.
“We want the community to know that we’re going to prosecute crimes that are committed against children very seriously,” Kern said. “We want to make sure all the children in our community are safe.”
If founded guilty, Shane Robertson, 47, and Crystal Robertson, 37, confront 7 years in prison.
Details are emerging about the couple, who resided in New Castle, Del., up until being kicked out from a leasing home there in 2019.
Court files obtained by The Inquirer reveal a prolonged disagreement in between Shane Robertson and his New Castle property owner that started late in 2018 over almost $6,000 in lease that had actually gone overdue for half a year.
A Delaware court ruled in favor of the property owner and purchased Robertson to pay. An effort to garnish salaries from his then-employer, a close-by Amazon storage facility, stopped working since Robertson’s salaries didn’t satisfy court requirements for that.
The court submitted its expulsion notification that January.
The Robertsons have actually resided in the West Rockhill Township home for the last 18 months to 2 years, authorities state. Property records reveal that the home is owned by Crystal’s moms and dads. Efforts to reach them were not successful.
Neighbors, on the other hand, state they were shocked to discover the conditions in which the family had actually been living.
Jim Finnen, a long time FedEx shipment driver, said he’d provided bundles to the home for over a years.
After the Robertsons got here, he said he’d make 3 or 4 shipments a month. During each check out, he said, he’d observed the lack of the typical indications of a rural family home — a swing set, toys in the lawn, a wading pool. And he kept in mind the home’s faded outside and disregarded yard.
Many of the bundles he provided, he said, were from Chewy, an online merchant for family pet food and items. He was amazed to learn the kids were undernourished, and concerns for their healing.
“It’s one thing to have the psychological trauma, but the lack of education, that’s gonna set them back,” Finnen said.
Beers, the next-door neighbor who lives throughout the street and who is a grandpa of young kids, questions what he might have done in a different way on the days he used the Robertson kids a neighborly snack.
“I just feel so bad for the kids,” he said. “If I knew they were starving, I would have made them sandwiches.”
